Trimmin

The Jones ACX R, revised.

I bought a extra ACX and gave it a hair cut with a nice pair of side cuts. It rolls way faster and weights a little less.
Sam and JHK both ran the ACX R tires at NORBA nationals. Credit goes to their mech Matt Opperman preformed the mod first.

OMBC Alum Creek

Alum creek has never been my favorite race but I'll talk anyways. The way the race runs is the Novice/Sport riders start at 11:00 and the experts start at 1:00 and because my dad is a sport rider had to come a little early. This allotted me some free time so I took some pictures and pre rode some of the course to get a feel for how dry it was going to be. I wound up swapping tires from a Karma 2.0/Dry X 1.8 to a Dry X 2.1/Dry X 1.8 after seeing how dry it was. Making this swap added 160g of rotational weight but I figured that fast rolling and large volume would be the better choice for the course.

I got a nice starting position and a horrible start. You can see in the picture below my right foot is unclipped. But after getting clipped back in I powered up to the front group and stayed there as we crossed the dam. After a super hairy ride across the dam( It seems mountain bikers cant pack ride very well) a few early attacks were launched leading up to the single track. I dropped back from 4th to 7th position as we entered the single track. I filled in behind Saeler`s wheel and fell back a little after a few unclipping incidents. Apparently my pedals/cleats are worn ou again. I was about 50' off Saelers wheel for the first two laps and at the start of the third lap he let me by saying that he was slowing me down... He was super hot on my wheel for half a lap and when I had a really hard pedal strike he went down with me. At that point I let him by but he waited a little so we could work together on the dam. After coming unclipped another million times I finally finished in 5th place expert and Sealer finished in 2nd in Vet Open.

More Results

Me followed closely by Saeler in the last mile.A picture of Tim Mould taken by dad.

Cutters

Had some free time after work last week and started a new project. Still not finished yet.. though I did receive my new chain ring from E.13. Its a 40 tooth DH ring that is very light (59.9g, cut 10g)and very stiff and it still gives me a top end gear that is higher than a 26" bike with a 44 tooth ring.

Stick Boy

I got a chance to rally my new (Skinny) tires on Sunday for the first time at the Knob and the performance was less than desirable. The ride was harsh and the cornering sucked but the flats and climbs were gravy. I could not find the tires sweet spot and after dropping pressure down to a 20psi front and 22psi rear they seemed to bite better but were squirmy in the hard corners. Super frustrating to say the least. It looks like these tires will be a dry weather/smooth course tire after all. On a more positive note they were Zuper sweet on the flats and even better on the climbs. I will most likely have to do a few more rides on them to get em figured out.
Today I did a good bit of house "work" and not much riding, I feel like a bum. But in my defense I have an inflamed right eye and a minor bacterial infection that I acquired from a run in with a bug Friday on my morning commute. I can’t were my contacts for a week and my old glasses are a little out of focus. I can’t read 1/2" text form 5 feet away. I can’t seem to get a break from all this bad luck...

I did manage to get my contacts in for a quick ride at the Knob on the SS rigid (lots of fork pressure(230psi) and locked out) bike and put down a 36min lap even after dropping a chain and stopping and waiting for new riders who were having a blast. I finished/installed a berm at the finish and rode it in a little to check for flow and strength. I have been trying to get more air off of the finish jump without adding more height, which tends to scare off entry level riders. The best way to get more air now is to hit the jump faster and the new berm really helps.


Ha! Your signs and fancy yellow digging machines can’t stop me. Detours are for cars.

Ha! Your signs and fancy yellow digging machines can’t stop me. Detours are for cars.This bucket must have been two feet tall three feet wide and two feet deep. I can just here myself now, "but daddy I want one nowww!!!"

Ha, Ha Ha Ha, Ha

I was fortunate enough to capture a rare Ohio Tree Hugger on film this week, such a lucky find.

Busy Weekend

Monday night riding home from the shop I got a picture of some cows doing whatever cows do.On Sunday We made a trip down to Zanesville for a OMBC race. The race was at Chris Skinners home course(on his own property) which is one of my favorite courses. It was a four lap race with laps being 4 to five miles long. The race was muddy but not as muddy as it could of been. On one section of the course we rode along side a corn field where the ground was Very soft and smelled like shit. Farmer John must of spread Manure some time in the week prior to the race.

The race started LeMans style and I was second to my bike and second into the single track. The trail was pretty muddy and I was unfamiliar with a new section and stuffed my wheel into a hole. This allowed Ben and Steve to get a jump on me. by the end of the first lap I had gone from 2nd to 3rd. I had no pop on the climbs and lost a lot of time. On the other end of the spectrum Brad who at the time was in first was having the opposite feeling... He was flying. At the end of the final lap I suffered a double leg cramp and lost a tone of time, I finished overall in 5th and 4th in the Expert category. Brad finished 1st, Justin got 2nd and Steve finished 3rd in the expert category and Travis finished 1st in the Vet open.

The day before there was a Groovy series race at Vultures Knob that I decided to not take part in as not to totally piss off my saddle sore which is now gone. Though I did decide to make an appearance to see what the turnout was like. There were not many racers at all! Brad Wilhelm was the only expert and there were only a few vet open riders. None the less Brad still received a $50 pay. I should of raced but I didn't want to pester my sore or tire my legs before my race on Sunday or trash my bike.

Bob dropped by the shop yesterday for our monthly updates and along with those updates he brought me a pair of Bontrager Dry X tires and a pair of Bontrager ACX tires.

Today I spent some time working on the bikes. The single speed got new tires, Bontrager Dry X`s and the race bike got it cables, and chain lubed. The Dry X tires came in at there claimed weight of 710g but were way wider than the 2.1 on the label. They looked around 2.3 or 2.35 and are very round.. I was very excited to try these tires out. Later on in the day me and Grant went out and rode the knob, I took the single speed to get a feel for the new tires. My first impression was they were not a good loose over hard pack tire but the more I rode them the more I started to get a feel for them. They roll super fast, faster than my Crows. They offer a very nice ride quality with the huge volume and climbed great. When descending the rear was stable but the front lost traction on a loose twisty section and almost caused a crash. I still need to find a good pressure range for these tires to get the most out of them. For a first ride I give them a 8/10 . They roll super fast, all around grip is good and have huge volume. On the down side they weigh 710g and have a learning curve and were a little unpredictable.

Just enough room

The new wheels hit the scales at 1496.4g for the set. Not to shabby for a 29er wheel.

Soldering and Tying spokes is a old way to stiffen up a flimsy wheel or a new way to stiffen up a wheel built with a light rim and spoke selection. It was used on bikes back in the day when materials and manufacturing techniques were not what they are today. I had heard of the technique before I got serious about bikes and thought it was a good idea and when I did some research on the topic I found that tests have been carried out. With modern materials and measuring equipment guys in lab coats found that the soldering and tying of spokes had NO INCREASE in stiffness. Though I did find some folks who actually ride bikes and they all seemed to notice a Increase in stiffens.

I decided to try some tying on a old junker wheel with some old electrical wire I had around the house, just for wrapping practice and then I tied the drive spokes on my slightly heavier and more durable 29er wheelset with some .7mm steel wire to see if it would actually work and it did. There was a noticeable increase in stiffness when climbing out of the saddle. I decided to buy the real stuff, DT Swiss Proline tying wire. This stuff was pricey, $40 for a 100 meter role. It is pretty much high quality Copper wire coated in Nickel which turns color so you know when you are over heating your wire. I wrapped my new wheels after riding the wheels around to fully seat in the spokes. The total gained weight of wrapping 24 crosses was 3.1g. I have a good feeling I will be doing this to my other wheels.

Something that I also thought was note worthy was in the event of a broken spoke the tying will hold the spoke in place and keep it from causing more damage.

Some tire profiles. On the left a Bontrager XR 1.8 with the sausage shaped casing and a Bontrager Dry X 1.75 on the right with a Round shaped casing. I have always been more fond of a sausage shaped casing on the front and a round shaped casing on the rear.

Soldered and Tied

First off, new rotors arrived today. Got them for a great price from the boys at Hope Tech. They cut a slightly over 90g of weight off my current setup and have better heat dissipation and still offer the durability of a standard steel rotor. I opted to go with the Hopes over the Stan`s because they are more durable and allow me to run any pad combination I want (Stan`s use only Organic or semi metallic pads). I prefer to use Sintered or full metallic pads due to there consistent performance under different conditions, high friction coefficient and long life span .

Hope Pro Floating Rotor 140mm, Claimed 64g

Hope Pro Floating Rotor 160mm, Claimed 82g

Today I rode my Bike

In a weeks time I should have my box of black nipples and I will be able to finish my mountain wheels and mount my new set of meatys on them. Tomorrow my new brake rotors should show up, cant wait to weigh them... its always nice to see who lies and who tells the truth.

Knobulate

Still thinks he`s a stud.. Nice tail Pippen.

Things to come

This corner is poo poo. You lose a good amount of speed prior to the finish jump.

Started a berm, finish it later. It need some more rain and height but its a start. The finishing jump also has a new lip on it.
More Air, is More Betta

Muddy bike